The Palatka daily news. (Palatka, Fla.) 1884-1888, 1887-02-22

Great Colonial Leader.
A history of the revolutionary war from
the pen of Washington would have revealed
the fact that he contended with other foes
than the English; that these foes We're in
ternal, of his own country and pertinent to
the cause, and that to his inexhaustible pa
thence in dealing with these is as much due
| our Independence as to his generalship i'll the
field
The republic was then but the republic in
kiea. IL was new, untrie,l and without prece-
dent in modern history To many even of
those urging it it seemed wild and visionary.
A few men, in reality, bolstered up the whole
moral strength of the American cause.
The colonies in effect many indie
pendent nations Without railroads or teIe-
graphs, they were sundered by distances now
almost unappreciable They did not know
each other to-day. Massachusetts and the
Carolinas We're then farther apart than are
now America and England AristOcracy
aristocratic tendencies and reverence for
aristocracy were far more common than at
present. The kings name was still a tower
of strength for thousands. "Sirs" and lords"
governed extensive domains, and were looked
up to by "lowbOrn" tenants as the vassals of
feudal age regarded their masters.
With the mass of the people the Colonial
congress had not the weight and respect of
the congress of to-day. 1t was thing.
1t lacked the prestige of age. 1t was also with
out precedent in relatively modern history.
1t had to bear something in that time of the
i'll repute which now attaches itself to a con-
vention of ultra radicals, it had no physical
power for enforcing carrying out its
measures. Internally there We're chickering's,
contentious and jealousies- There were in
that time no reporters to ferret out and tell
of these things. New England, or part of
its sentiment, dissatisfied because the
aristocratic Virginian was appointed to the
chief command. The spirits of the Cavalier
and ROundhead We're represented in that con-
greSs. The Episcopalian and Presbyterian
were there both with the memories of Charles
| and Cromwell far fresher than to-day Such
elements could not meet even for a common
purpose without personal antipathy and
sultant antagonism. There was power,
no surety that any colony would remain true
to the cause "A nation distant ten days or a
fortnight'S slow travel from Philadelphia
might be represented by one man, and such
representation be swayed by the within, the
prejudice or personal antipathy of that man,
with no possibility of such action on his part
coming to the ears of those who sent him for
a month.
The battle then waged by Washington was
only in part against the English. Half of his
strength was expended in resisting the vari-
Gus destructive forces arising within the spa
triot cause" IL took the forms of jealous
murmurings, whims rascality, Indifference.
Be the cause as righteous as it may, these foes
always are at work at the core. They belong
to immature human nature, and are sure to
come. Because n man is convinced of any
particular injustice and eager to right it, Is
no proof that he is himself without weak
nerves or personal ambition. The most diff
cult quality to secure in any just movement
is the capacity for impersonal efTort-for
effort induced entirely by love of the Gauss,
and the work, and which can do its work
without attaching to it its name.
OF the early history of the abolition move
ment Garrison remarked that half the force
expended was lost in meeting and queIling in
ternal chickering's and jealousies
So it was in Washington's time. Many of
his officers were jealous of him. Jealousy Is
always active. Burr murInured, Gates de
precated, Lee disobeyed orders, Arnold
plotted, Ward endeavored to supercede Wash
ington. These are the Few coming to light
This, the inside battle fought by Washing
ton, harder than the outside fight against
the troops of King George! The first as
the worm eating at the core, and destructive
to the strength To be concentrated against the
common enemy. Internal dissatisfaction is
the traitor at ones back, ready to strike
when your arm is lifted to resist the outer
foe The same foe was at work in the more
recent rebellion. Political meldling, per
sonal ambition and personal antipathies indi-
rectly cost the lives of as many northern
soldiers as the shot of the south. 1t was the
conviction of the nation that the unlimited
command should be given a single man that
won the fight as much the man himself
Grant, at the commencement of the war
would have been nihble.i Ia pieces 10y the rats
at W aShn stOn-in and out of uniform.
WaShIust ton nibbled ut by the Contintn-
tai rats Of his time during the entir.. seven
wears = ven years is long period for
"a ragged, hungry host OF men To tramp about
from New York to Yorktown, with winter
quarters ON frontier of snow buried noun
tainS. Take railroads, steamboats, AMI tele-
graphs out of the country, put "a foreign foe
in out--hhlf the cities and towns where the
women ami children remain, let all news
travel 10y horse, with possibility of capture
by an enemy; reduce the value of greenbacks
to almost worthless paper, make one third the
population traitors and another third doubt
full ami respondent, make the scalpIng knife
81 the hostile Indian at Saratoga, destroy the
navy. live in "A country which Vet Il not
a nation, has hardly dreamed of its own
| constitution and government, and the major
| ity Of who>e people, striving for liberty, are
| doubtful aS in whom or what the power really
| rests and We have more Of the features and
difficulties besetting tine man chief in COM
mand loo years ago
WaShiugton's army was ut best hut a sorry
affair." body of lily paid. lily fed, lily
/ clothed men-,liSsatIsfieti men. who came and
went almost at their own pleasure Number
! ing at the most but few Thousand, IT might
! in n months time be depleted one fourth or
| third 10y expiration of terms Of enlistment.
! Desertion easy and safe. The Americans
I at Bunker Hill were simply a crowd OF men
| armed with nl,Iskets, not an organized force.
/ Bunker Hill was fought 10y general train
| Ing muster" and Lexington by an awkward
! squad Of Americans. The English were but
/ little better in some respects. Their officers
heads were muddei by over feeding, over
| drinking aud conceit Neither Grant nar